WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERSfor Persona 5 Royal ahead. Proceed at your own risk.
Summary
Compared to other genre giants likeDragon QuestandFinal Fantasy,Persona’s rise to widespread recognition has been relatively recent. It began in 1996, but it arguably wasn’t until 2012’sPersona 4 Goldenthat the series developed any kind of familiarity and stopping power in the west.Persona 5and itsRoyalupgrade truly made it big, meaning all eyes are now firmly fixed onPersona 6, which has yet to be formally announced.
Little is known about the project, so rumors are aplenty. There are expectations of every new entry, butPersona 5made a big, bold story decision that put those aforementioned predispositions in doubt. Not all is as it seems with Igor, and the shocking revelation that Igor was replaced with an impostor is a big indicator that players should expect the unexpected inPersona 6. Truly, anything can happen.
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Persona Often Sticks to Convention
Though the JRPG space isn’t as competitive as it used to be in the mid-to-late 1990s, there are plenty of franchises that are vying for players' attention.Final Fantasyis going strong, with Clive’s adventure in Valisthea capturing the hearts of new gamers as well as seasoned fans of the franchise, andOctopath Travelerhas carved out a niche for itself, too. There are a lot of others, but the rise ofPersonain recent years has been the steepest incline, and this is due in no small part to each new game relying on certain conventions.Persona 3laid a lot of the groundwork thatPersona 5 Royalused, meaning it has enjoyed the benefits of consistency.
There’s a lot of value in that, as a good repeatable template can keep fans entertained without reinventing the wheel all the time. Tweaking it is essential, but overhauling it entirely is a big risk.Personawears its conventions and traditions proudly, but with more successful entries, the need for some kind of radical change is more obvious than ever.Persona 5did something drastic by toying with how much Igor, the most dependable character in the franchise, can be trusted.
Igor’s Reveal is an Excuse to Change it Up
In fiction at large, the more predictable something is, the more shocking and exciting it can be when a story uproots consistent elements in an effort to change things up. Igor has been in thePersonaseries since the beginning in 1996’sRevelations: Persona, serving as the cryptic host ofthe Velvet Room, shepherding the player through their journey. InPersona 5, while he seemingly assumes the same role, albeit with a deeper voice and more unsettling aura than past games, it is later revealed that Yaldabaoth imprisoned Igor for much of the story, intent on causing chaos due to the corruption of humanity.
It’s a long con, but ultimately a brilliant decision, as it distorts the fundamental fabric ofPersonathat players have not only known, but relied on. More critically, the narrative wrinkle shows that Atlus is willing to take chances and play around with the pillars of the franchise. This means that inPersona 6nothing is safe, and it could really go in any new exciting and unpredictable direction, or be another cookie-cutter experience. The seed of doubt was planted withIgor’s inclusion inPersona 5, so for the first time in a long time,Personacould not all be as it seems, which is thrilling for both fans of the IP and the JRPG genre itself.
Persona 6is in development.
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